NV Energy confirms interest in building coal plant at Valmy

NV Energy Inc., which has endured criticism from environmentalists over development of the $5 billion Ely Energy Center, confirmed Thursday it is interested in building another coal-fired power plant similar in size to the 1,500-megawatt power plant at Ely.

David Sims, director of project development for the utility company, acknowledged that the Public Utilities Commission directed NV Energy to update information on the possibility of building another coal-fired plant at Valmy Generating Station, 130 miles northwest of Reno.

"We are interested (in building another unit at Valmy) as is the commission," Sims said. NV Energy, the holding company for electric utilities in Nevada, sees a third unit at Valmy as an additional plant rather than an alternative to the Ely facility, he said.

Charles Benjamin, director of the Nevada office of environmental group Western Resource Advocates, said the Nevada commission is reviewing alternatives in preparation for a three-year review of the Ely center and other NV Energy projects this summer.

"I'm not going to be too concerned about what's called the Valmy option until we get into the triennial review," Benjamin said.

Valmy is an existing brownfield site for coal-fired generation and dates back to the 1980s while the Ely center is a greenfield site on undeveloped land.

"While the Valmy site is a brownfield site, a coal plant at that site still raises the same concerns that the other coal plants have for Nevada," Benjamin said.

Coal-fired power plants throw off twice the carbon dioxide per unit of electricity as natural gas-fired plants, and scientists say that carbon dioxide leads to global warming.

Idaho Power and NV Energy each own half interests in Valmy units one and two. In a December letter to NV Energy, Idaho Power Senior Vice President James Miller said the Idaho utility has no plans for a coal-fired power plant "in the near term" and wouldn't be willing to participate in a detailed feasibility study of a third power unit at Valmy.

Miller added: "However, we do wish to preserve our options to expand coal-fired production in the future, possibly when 'clean coal' technology is commercially available."

By clean coal technology, Miller said he meant technology for capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions.

Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0420.